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NPR's Bob Mondello and Susan Stamberg read excerpts of two of the best submissions for Round 11 of our short story contest. They read Litter by Kalad Hovatter of Orange, Calif., and The Shirt by Jennifer Anderson of Shorewood, Wis.

The energy bill now before Congress focuses on decreasing consumption across various sectors. Among the proposals: eliminating the so-called "Hummer tax loophole" that allows small businesses to write off large luxury SUVs.

President Bush's speech to the Coast Guard Academy on Wednesday addresses intelligence documents on al-Qaida. The White House says the documents show that Osama Bin Laden sought a greater al-Qaida presence in Iraq.

In L.A. Superior Court on Monday morning, attorneys for clergy sex-abuse victims and for the archdiocese presented a $660 million settlement. Attorneys and advocates for the victims are skeptical of the timing of the settlement as they believe it was timed to prevent the trial that was set to go ahead that day.

About 2,000 mourners gather at a church in the Texas Hill Country to remember Lady Bird Johnson. Earlier, a family spokeswoman says nearly 10,000 visitors streamed past the casket as it lay in repose at the LBJ Library and Museum in Austin, Texas.

In another day of scattered violence in Iraq, a suicide bomber breached tight security around a Baghdad hotel and blew himself up where Sunni sheiks allied with the U.S. in the fight against al-Qaida were meeting. At least 12 people were killed.

A bombing Tuesday in Pakistan's borderlands is the latest in a string of attacks by militants after the siege of Islamabad's Red Mosque. The scale of the violence has renewed debate about the threat of Islamist extremists to President Pervez Musharraf.

The House is officially on record as opposing President Bush's plan to increase troop strength in Iraq. Friday's vote followed four days of often emotional rhetoric on the House floor.

Lawmakers assailed Army leaders Monday for the conditions at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee held a hearing at the hospital.

Embattled World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz is set to appear before the World Bank board behind closed doors. This week, the bank is due to give its final decision on whether Wolfowitz should remain as bank president. The question at hand is whether Wolfowitz violated rules by arranging a pay raise for his bank-employed girlfriend.